State Water Board Denies Smithfield Foods Request

December 12, 1989|By ANDY PARKER Staff Writer

RICHMOND — The State Water Control Board unanimously denied on Monday a request by Smithfield Foods Inc. for more lenient enforcement of stricter state standards designed to protect the Chesapeake Bay.

The water board voted to uphold toughened standards on the amount of phosphates that can be legally dumped into the Pagan River despite claims by Smithfield Foods officials that the costly implementation of the plan could eventually force the company to close down both of its Smithfield-based meatpacking operations.

The standards are aimed at reducing the levels of phosphorus being dumped into the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. The Pagan feeds into the James River, a major bay tributary.

Smithfield Foods, which owns and operates Gwaltney of Smithfield Ltd. and Smithfield Packing Co. Inc., will request a formal grievance hearing before the water board to appeal Monday's decision, said a company spokesman who asked not to be identified. The hearing before the full board will probably take place sometime early next year, said Carl Thomas, a water board enforcement specialist.

Smithfield Foods officials contend that even $3 million in improvements to waste-water treatment facilities will not guarantee that the company can consistently meet the new water board guidelines. The new re strictions limit to two milligrams per liter of waste water the amount of phosphorus that industrial and municipal treatment plants can dump into the tributaries of the bay.

An investigation by the water board staff contradicted Smithfield Foods' claims that the company cannot meet the tougher phosphorus standards and remain competitive in the meatpacking industry, Thomas told the board members.

Patrick L. Standing, a member of the board, suggested Monday that the meatpacker should work with Smithfield and Isle of Wight County officials to investigate the possibility of bringing Hampton Roads Sanitation District sewerage lines to the Smithfield area. The idea of jointly financing the sewage project was first raised by Isle of Wight Supervisor Richard Turner at a water board hearing last week.

Standing said he had informally discussed the hypothetical sewage project with an HRSD official who suggested that the high levels of phosphorus generated by Smithfield Foods would pose no major treatment problems for the regional sewerage authority's current operation because of the tremendous volumes of waste water already handled by the system.

James Ryan, an attorney representing Smithfield Foods, refused to speculate on whether the company would be interested in pursuing the joint sewage project.

Under the new phosphorus limits, Smithfield Foods would have to reduce phosphate discharges from a current level of 40 milligrams per liter to the new level, a 95 percent reduction, over the next three years. A consultant for Smithfield Foods said last week that the new limits on phosphorus were the most restrictive he knew of in the nation.

Smithfield Foods has already filed a lawsuit in Isle of Wight Circuit Court charging that the water board failed to adequately measure the economic impact of the new regulations on the financial health of the company.

Richard M. Burton, executive director of the water board, expressed his hope that Smithfield Foods would work with local government to investigate the possibility of bringing HRSD to the Smithfield area.